The topic of cyberbullying is a known issue and is increasing among teens today. Unfortunately, the targets of cyberbullying are not within set age groups, like traditional bullying. One of the most recent targets (?) a bullying expert; Evan Yalden, which – from what I have read – has become the target because he is trying to help teens. In addition, cyberbullying – at least in this case – is legal and the expert cannot do anything to stop the act. According to the report, teens from a local high school started a FaceBook page with the objective of harassing Yalden and created mock / anonymous accounts to post derogatory comments.
Enter in FaceBook’s solution, complete with the help of the President. FaceBook recently announced that as part of its continuing efforts to improve its ‘usefulness’ – added tools with the intent to somewhat help with cyberbullying. After reading what FaceBook intends, it is clear that it will not help Yalden’s problem or others like it. FaceBook is designing its new tools to be used towards people with ‘real’ accounts, not the fictitious accounts that Yalden’s tormentors created. In addition, nothing is stated about actually banning / suspending peoples account for cyberbullying, much like Yalden’s problem, cyberbullying is an up-hill battle with the victim having fewer rights than the antagonist.
FaceBook is adding resources about the harm cyberbullying does, which is defiantly a useful step, but it has not listed any true preventive measures or consequences to the actual tormentors themselves.
I do have to hand it to FaceBook though, having a video of the subject complete with President Obama. At the very least, this issue has risen to the top. Unfortunately, the topic of cyberbullying has been around for over 10 years now with data going back to the 1999/2000 period but still… perhaps in 10 more years they will have a solution that works.
Teen behavior often fluctuates during adolescent years, at times teenagers are described as bright, funny, well-liked in school etc… but there are times when they skip school, get suspended for stunts, and the like. In truth, teenagers today are not performing well. You only have to look at the statistics to realize they are not performing up to their potential.
As a group, U.S. teens are 17th in the world for science and 25th in the world for math, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in terms of college graduation they come in 12th among other countries. This is far below what we have historically achieved.
One thing to note is the increasing influence that media, internet, video games etc… have on adolescents, some research even suggesting this influence is increasing risky behavior in teens. Is it the increase in the risky behavior or perhaps simply access to things that provide a very convenient and easy distraction that is causing a decline in academic performance? Perhaps it is a combination of both.
I will take a recent example from the other day. I was helping a teen with their homework – part of the assignment involved doing research via the internet. Now there is tons of information available and the internet is a worthwhile tool for learning. Unfortunately, it is full of distractions, advertisements, blog posts etc…. and trying to keep a teen on task is more work than the actual assignment itself it seems. Add in the various influences from video games, YouTube videos, cable TV etc… and it doesn’t take much to realize what teens would rather be spending their time on.
While it is clear that all this technology is a useful resource and it is not going away – and I am fine with it staying – it is not clear how much impact technology is having on academic achievement, or the lack of, in today’s society. In addition, I cannot help but think that as we become more mobile and more used to a virtual society, academics’ within our country are declining.
